The Gregory Legacy, Chapter 44

Hi lovelies! It's been a while because I've been under the weather, but my project to catch up with my play continues. Last time we saw Eleanor, Eileen, and Taylor explore Selvadorada, where heiress Eleanor caught the exploring bug, but resignedly came home to try to finish her Serial Romancer aspiration and allow her mother to tether our ghosts to the mortal plane for a while yet. This chapter we'll see Eleanor finally become an adult, and plenty of fun along the way, so read on . . .

We open on a scene of a meeting of stray cats in our driveway. What are they saying? What do they want? Is Mayor Whiskers the chairman? Who knows? 

Pretty soon after loading the lot, my patience in not letting Eileen follow up on her failed courtship of childhood friend Dale pays off, and he invites her - in a flirty manner, no less - to the Romance Festival. Whether Dale knows it or not, his Destiny™ is rushing towards him like a runaway train thanks to this one phone call. 

Eileen is a little less sure than I am. While Dale gets showered in petals upon their arrival, she frets.

Eileen: "He didn't exactly say he wanted to kiss me, but he kind of suggested it. But he turned me down. Has he changed his mind? Is he just doing this because he thinks it's what I want? Is he setting me up for a prank? I want this to be true so much that I hope it's not clouding my judgment. I just want us to be a thing."

Eileen takes a gamble on a romantic present (black beans from her back pocket - so flirty) , and Dale is receptive.

Meanwhile, my attention is totally diverted when I discover this delightful gathering of misfits. That's Bjorn Bjergesen in the Darth helmet and his wife next to him, who I imagine is dying of embarrassment. I don't know who Super Llama is, but based on the muscles, I think it's this one frighteningly-buff townie I have named Martha. Anyway, what a beautiful and moving tableau on the nature of love. 

Checking back in on these two dorks, they've both partaken of the sakura tea and are feeling rather flirty. Eileen finally works up the courage after a chat to throw out a pickup line. 

Smoooooooooth. Dale is receptive! Yay! Eileen, starting to feel more confident, is on a roll with the flirts. 

And then, the first kiss that has been waiting her entire adolescence for its emergence. 

And an embrace! Even though Eileen is not heiress, I've always liked her quiet sweetness quite a bit and I named her the name that my parents almost gave my sister when she was born, so I'm rooting for her. Plus these guys are basically my OTP for this generation because all of Eleanor's relationships are so shallow. 

Eileen: "Dale, I'm really glad you invited me."
Dale: "I'm really glad you came. I'm sorry I turned you down. I just got so nervous that I went totally stupid. I've liked you for a long time, Eileen. Will you . . .?"
Eileen: "Yes?"
Dale: "Will you be my girlfriend?"
Eileen: "You dork, of course I will!"

Ok, you caught me: technically Eileen had to do the asking since Dale's not in my control, but it just flowed better like this.

As the Romance Festival winds down, I caught a rare glance of generation 4 spare Luke and his wife Nathalie. We've seen Nathalie when Luke's niece Faye was harassing her, but I don't think Luke gets out much. It was nice seeing them being all lovey-dovey with each other. A nice end to a nice night. 

But back home, the romance just keeps on rolling. Eleanor is refreshing her relationship with her first boyfriend, Owen, with whom I only ever see her locking lips.

Eleanor: Owen, *kiss* do you think we *kiss* could just talk for a *kiss* while?"

Owen: "Yeah, I don't really know if that's our thing, Ellie. I gotta go do . . . stuff. See you later.
Eleanor: "For a guy who wants to be jealous, you sure are a d-bag of a boyfriend."
Owen: "Yeah, but you should enjoy your only boyfriend. I mean, I'm all you've got."
Eleanor: ". . ."
Owen: "Wait."

And so it's on to the next one. This is Kaiden Haskins. He's really cute, even if you can't particularly tell from this shot. He's definitely going on the potential-spouse list. 

And he is the first kissee/boyfriend to return Eleanor's affection rather than just soak it up! Brownie points, Kaiden. 

My main thought upon seeing this screenshot was not "Oh no! Celeste is being abducted!" or even "Why did I frame the picture with the dog's butt right in the foreground?" No. What I wondered when I saw this again after some time is, "Who dressed this woman?"

The answer is me. I dressed her. At first I thought she had had an unlucky brush with a random game-generated cold weather outfit, but then I remembered I gave them all cold and hot weather outfits after the patch but before Seasons, so I didn't have much in the way of sweaters or coats and I got angry so I gave them all stupid Christmas sweaters because I am a fickle and vengeful Controller like that, and I just forgot to change it. So thanks for the reminder, Celeste!

While Celeste is away, the ghosts make sure to lavish attention on Nova. I wish I could change their cold weather outfits because like 95% of my ghosts wear letterman-style jackets, it seems. 

As the sun rises, Celeste takes Nova on a jog to work off the angry moodlet she got from her abduction. Nova is just glad for the exercise and for this not to be one of Rafael's boring walks.

Inside, Eleanor has had a late evening socializing with Ronnie here turn into an early morning, and she has finally earned her first kiss and then boyfriend-girlfriend status with him, much to the consternation of frequent-bystander Taylor.

Taylor: "Why can I never just pluck my leaves in peace?"

Zygo Osseus: "Wo. . .

Wait, I have to interrupt this. His last name is Osseus, which is the last name of all the skeleton temple guardians. Conspiracy??? Anyway . . .

Zygo Osseus: "Wow, an avocado that you've just been holding on to ever since you got back from Selvadorada. This is almost certainly not spoiled beyond all recognition as a fruit at this point. I don't know that I've ever received such a romantic gift! Thank you so much!"

Produce, regardless of its relevance, usually gets a good response.

And another first kiss and boyfriend for the tally. 

One more! This is Eddie. Eleanor is burning through this aspiration, but she's basically a charm-emitting machine. 

Kenzie: "Niiiice."
Dude Whose Name I Forgot, Therefore You Can Infer He Doesn't Factor in Later: "Excuse me, are you objectifying me?"

I had to grow up Eleanor's childhood friend Kenzie, because even though Eleanor's making record time on this aspiration, any good serial romantic needs a wingwoman and Eileen is too principled/involved in her own love story and Taylor is too distracted by leaves/peevish for it. Thus, teenage Kenzie, who is actually ridiculously cute. 

Eleanor scores a kiss and a relationship with Dude. 

Kenzie approves of their new relationship, and I approve of Kenzie's efforts to dress herself for the weather, since I actually grew her up and edited her before the patch. 

Eleanor: "And here's my fifth boyfriend and me doing duck faces."
Kenzie: "Ellie, you've got one crazy life! How are you ever going to choose a husband when you've got so much material?"
Eleanor: "Eh, I'm not really worried about that. I'm just having fun right now. The rest will work itself out later, I'm sure."
Kenzie: "If you say so."

And where are the older generations during all this? Well, Celeste was literally in the last shot, and now she's in this one drinking on the side of the pool. 

Raf plays with his favorite daughter, Cornflower. I'm not sure he even knows anymore that she's not his biological daughter.

Rafael: "She has my spines!"

And longevity-blessed/cursed Andres comes home with the promotion to the top of the Chef career and a nasty-looking itchy rash. 

Later on, the three girls huddle in the focus room to get some work done. Well, the twins are doing homework. Taylor is trolling teh forums, actually, running down her already abysmal Empathy character value. She's also not currently a plantsim because the forbidden fruit ran out, but it felt stupid to change her at night when I had no chance of getting her to sunlight. She'll change back to her true form in the morning.

After homework, Eleanor spends some time cuddling, pampering, and Simstagramming her little budding star. 

Speaking of pets, our third cowplant has gone to that great garden in the sky . . . literally, because I made his/her skull another gargoyle for our house. R.I.P. Cowplant Whose Name I Forgot. I'm on a roll this chapter, aren't I? 

Eleanor doesn't sleep much, and when she's run out of beaus to court, she likes to work on her archaeology skill. Her trip to Selvadorada really inspired a different side of her that hadn't seen much use since her Whiz Kid days. 

Morning finally comes and Taylor makes her transformation. 

A little zoomed box of Andres' moodlet. I found this hilarious, but in retrospect it became really funny. At this time, their bills were about $20,000-ish, give or take, which I thought was reasonable to complain about. Once it snowed and I foolishly left the thermostat on all the time though, they brought in bills over $116,000. Not a typo there. It was a very O.O moment for me, but whoever paid it at that time didn't get this moodlet, so I guess Andres was just feeling uncharacteristically cranky at Sim City's tax collectors. 

His illness came back for round two as he was giving Nova a cuddle. Nova is a very loved member of the family now, not just Eleanor's dog, though she still does the most with her. 

Andres is such a stand-up guy. He helps Taylor with a project he knows nothing about, and even though the project turns out to only be of middling-quality, they had a nice time.

Andres: "Faye knew rocket science and logic. She would have knocked this out of the park."

Don't make me sad, Andres! He's right, though.

Dude was Eleanor's 9th boyfriend and 8th first kiss (that counted, anyway - technically these two had a first kiss, but it was before the requirement came up so it didn't count), so Eleanor just has to go on three gold-medal dates. She chooses Owen for her first date since he was her first boyfriend, after all. To absolutely no one's surprise, they start out with a little kissing.

The kissing continues inside the karaoke bar, much to this patron's consternation.

Patron: "I just wanted to sing some Ariana Grande after a hard day at work. Is that so wrong?"

Apparently these two pictures were the most interesting parts of the date, because they were all I captured. It was a gold medal and Eleanor moved on. I am so done with this aspiration, especially since this is my second time doing it in this legacy.

She had her second date with potential-spouse-material Kaiden here, and there was more kissing, because that's kind of Eleanor's style. 

You guys! I now know why Faye was so awful to Nathalie all those times. Nathalie apparently is in the habit of courting really bad luck, and I can't think of much worse luck than having Faye focused on you. In the background, Eleanor chats with Kaiden for another gold medal date. 

Date #3 is with Ronnie. I'm auditioning some of my favorites for Eleanor's future husband because she's very close to young adult, but I don't have my heart set on any of them yet, and there's also the matter of all the young adult guys she could marry too. I'm waiting for her "One" to show up. 

Ronnie spontaneously gave her a rose, though, so that's pretty good. With this third gold medal date, Eleanor has completed the Serial Romantic aspiration and earned the Player trait, giving her the ability to cheat with impunity, which is stupid because what do they think she's been doing all this time? It's not like it's been difficult for her. Ahem. Anyway, her next aspiration is Archeology Scholar since she was so taken with traveling and the skill. It looks like we'll be seeing more of Selvadorada in the future. 

Eleanor finishes up her wild night out with an early morning homework session with some randoms including her distant-aunt Nathalie, who apparently never goes home. This calls for a selfie, of course. 

Then, the lady from the market in Selvadorada whose name I couldn't and still can't remember showed up and tutored Eleanor, helping her finish her homework faster. Thanks for the assist. 

We return home with preparations for a double birthday party in full swing, including Andres cooking in the nursery for no apparent reason. No one has done this before or since, at least so far. 

Eileen: "Ellie! Have a nice night?"
Eleanor: "Yeah! It was great. Three nice dates and I completed that aspiration. I'm ready to step into the next, more responsible chapter of my life."
Eileen: "Just in time, girl, because we're becoming young adults!"
Taylor: "Yay for you two or whatever. When do we have cake?"

With the Player trait absolving her of any potential problems between lovers, Eleanor invited all her fave boyfriends, a few relatives, some friends left over from Social Butterfly, and Kenzie to the party. Not a single one of them managed to see the girls actually blow out their candles, but the twins are now young adults.

Here's where the party mostly took place. It was a good party. I took the liberty of growing up Kenzie and a few of the boys just for continuity and options.

Eleanor took a break to watch the stars with her new bestie.

Eleanor: "And then, when I'm done traveling and investigating the amazing ruins, I think I'll be ready to settle down and get married and have children."
Kenzie: "Sounds like a plan, El. I can't say you've worked hard, exactly, but I think you've accomplished your goals so far and I bet this next phase is going to go well for you. Just don't screw it up."
Eleanor: "Nah, these careless days are behind me."

Eleanor: "Thanks for coming, Uncle Isaac. It was really good to see you again."
Kaiden: "Excuse me, sir. Could I borrow the birthday girl?"

Kaiden: "I have a present I'd like to give you."
Eleanor: "Ooh~!"

This picture is notable for three reasons:

1. Jonathan Lima and Taylor made friends during this party, all according to plan.
2. Kaiden came strutting down through the house as the party winded down, feeling pretty good about himself.
3. Eleanor did not come down with him.

Where could she be?

Eleanor: "Crap. Crapcrapcrapcrap. Why now?" 

Eleanor: "Okay, so, Kaiden, I have something to tell you."
Kaiden: "I know about the other guys already. It's not really a big deal to me, Ellie. We're not serious."
Eleanor: "Um, this is a bit more important than that. I have something really, really important to tell you."
Kaiden: "Well, spit it out already."
Eleanor: "You knocked me up just now."

Kaiden: "WHAT?"
Eleanor: "Surprise?"
Kaiden: "I can't be a father! I'm too young! We just became adults! I've got my whole life ahead of me. I won't be trapped like this!"
Eleanor: "Excuse me? Trapped? And you're young? What about me?! I'm pregnant thanks to you, and this baby needs a father."
Kaiden: "Then good luck finding one. It won't be me."

Trouble in paradise, folks. Eleanor has no ring, no husband, but a baby on the way as close to a teen pregnancy as you can have without mods. How will she juggle this, heiress life, and her Selvadoradan dreams? You'll have to check back next time to see how the drama unfolds. Thanks for reading, and be sure to check in with me at Boolprop!